DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4, 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akao (JP2002087516) in view of Ebizawa et a (JP6912125).
Referring to claim 1. Akao discloses a “Vehicular Battery Replacing Device”. See Figs. 1-7 and respective portions of the specification. Akao futher discloses a “Vehicular Battery Replacing Device”. See Figs. 1-7 and respective portions of the specification. Akao futher discloses a battery unit storage warehouse, comprising: a skid/rack (5) configured to hold a batteries stacked in multiple stage; an overhead crane/forklift (11), configured to stacked the skid/bucket and remove the skid (See at least Sect. 0006, 0012, 0014-0015, 0019). Moreover, Akao discloses charging means (8) connected to the stored batteries via the rack structure. Thus, Akao teaches a skid configured to hold a battery unit, an overhead crane configured to stack and remove the skids and a conductor/charging pathway connected to stored battery units. Akao doesn’t disclose a terminal connectable to a battery unit through which a conductor is electrically connected to the battery unit when the skid is stacked or control device, configured to control the overhead crane. Ebizawa et al (herein “Ebizawa”) discloses a “Used Battery Unit Holder And Used Battery Unit Storage System”. See Figs. 1-12 and respective portions of the specification. Ebizawa further discloses a holder used for a battery unit comprising a main holder body (10) that holds the battery unit and a connection portion (30) on the holder that electrically connects the held battery unit to an external conductor (930) of the storage device (See Sect. 0044-0045, 0048-0049, 0056). Specifically, the connection portion (30) includes a battery side connector (330) connected to the battery unit’s electrode terminals and a connection circuit-side connector (330) connected to the storage device’s external connection circuit, so that attaching the holder to the storage device completes the electrical pathway from the battery unit through the holder mounted terminal to the external conductor (See Sect. 0049, 0056). Thus, Ebizawa teaches a terminal (connection portion 30, batter side connector 31) connectable to the battery unit through intermediation of that terminal when the holder is placed in the storage device. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the Akao’s crane based stackable battery storage system to incorporate Akao’s holder mounted terminal/connection structure, in order to enable the battery units stored in the rack to be electrically accessed without requiring separate manual wiring for each stored unit and to provide an electronic control device to direct crane operations in an automated storage and retrieval system as this is well known in the field to do and would have been beneficial as a way of automating crane operations via a control device to perform stacking and retrieval tasks, which would reduce slow manual operations and increase throughput.
Referring to claim 2. Akao in view of Ebizawa disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Claim 2 further requires that the battery unit storage warehouse be configured to allow the battery unit held on the skid to store electric power and allow a supply of electric power from the battery unit via the conductor. Akao discloses charging means (8) that charges that stored batteries (3) (Sect. 0023), thus teaching a storage system configured to allow the battery unit held in the carrier (7) to store electric power. Ebizawa discloses that charge/discharge unit (530) of the holder discharges the stored battery units and that the discharged electric power is supplied to an external load in or around the facility where the storage device is installed via an inverter provided in the storage device (Sect. 0072), wherein the external load receives power via the connection circuit (930, the external conductor of the storage device) (Sect. 0056), thus teaching supplying electric power from the stored battery unit via the external conductor to an external load. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Akao incorporate the teachings of Ebizawa so the combined system was configured to support bidirectional power flow with both storing and supplying electric power.
Referring to claims 4, 6. Akao in view of Ebizawa disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Claim 4 further requires that the control device be configured to control the overhead crane to remove the battery unit with a reduced capacity. Akao discloses an overhead crane (1) used to remove bucket/carrier and battery assemblies from the storage zones (24, 25) of the rack (See Sect. 0021-0024, 0026). Akao does not disclose the control device is configured to control the overhead crane to remove a battery unit with a reduced capacity. Ebizawa discloses a battery state recognition unit (70) that recognizes the state of the battery stored in the battery units, including current value, voltage value and temperature sensors (See Sect. 0053-0054). Ebizawa further discloses that when the state of a used battery unit is determined to be abnormal, the battery state recognition unit outputs information identifying the abnormal battery unit (Sect. 0111), thus teaches detecting a battery unit with reduced or degraded capacity within a battery storage system. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the control device of the combined system of Akao and Ebizawa to control the overhead crane to remove a battery unit with a reduced capacity upon detection of the reduced capacity state by a battery state recognition unit (70) using a crane as it is already the mechanism used for the removal of stored battery units and removing faulty or diminished batteries would increase system efficiency by eliminating manual monitoring and intervention.
Referring to claim 5. Akao in view of Ebizawa disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to above. Claim 5 requires a skid configured to be stacked to store a battery unit, comprising: a function of holding the battery unit, and a terminal configured to allow an electrical connection between the battery unit and an external conductor. Akao disclose a vehicular battery exchanging device comprising a rack-based storage system for batteries that can be stacked in multiple stages for high density storage and further discloses a bucket/carrier (7) that is formed in a substantially rectangular shape configured to accommodate a battery (3) inside, wherein the bucket can be stacked in multiple stages (See Sect. 0014), thus Akao teaches a carrier/bucket (7) configured to be stacked to store a battery unit, having a function of holding the battery unit, thus teaching a skid having a function of holding a battery unit and configured to be stacked to store a battery unit. However, Akao does not disclose a terminal configured to allow an electrical connection between the battery unit and an external conductor. Ebizawa a holder for a used battery unit that can be detachably attached to a storage device, the holder including a holder main body (10) that holds a used battery unit (910) and a connection portion (30) connected to the used battery unit held by the holder (See Sect. 0044-0045), wherein the connection portion specifically includes a battery-side connector (31) connected to the positive and negative electrode terminals of the used battery unit (910) and a connection circuit-side connector (330) connected to the connection circuit (930) of the storage device (90) (See Sect. 0049). It is understood that the connection circuit (930) of the storage device serves as an external conductor electrically connecting the holder held battery unit to the storage system (Sect. 0056). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Akao’s system to incorporate Ebizawa’s connection portion/terminal (30) in order to enable electrical access to the stored batter unit while it remains in the storage rack, without requiring separate manual wiring operations for each battery.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 7 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TERRELL HOWARD MATTHEWS whose telephone number is (571)272-5929. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday; 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM EST.
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/TERRELL H MATTHEWS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653
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